GOT MY PLANE TICKET FOR PERU!!

Hey mom and dad I literally just got my flight plan.  I leave Monday morning at 10 am!!!!!!!

I am so pumped anyway I am sending you guys this email because I don´t know when my next P day will be or when I will be able to email again. I have heard that you can call once you get to the mission home and the airport so keep your phones on Monday because I want to talk to you guys.  Anyway maybe even wait until Tuesday if you still haven't heard from me because I  have no idea what will happen once we get to Peru.  Anyway I love you guys so much and I can't wait to leave the CCM and start to share the gospel with others, even if it is in crappy broken Spanish.

Week 4

Hey guys how is everyone doing? Okay, so when I was called as Zone Leader I was told that we don't have to do anything. My first day as Zone Leader some kid in another district in my zone gave a friend of mine in my district a concussion during handball! So our district leader was yelling at that kid and it was going back and forth so I had to separate them.   We left with like half of gym time left because everyone was angry.  My second day a new girl who is actually going to the Houston mission suddenly broke down and cried in the middle of our nightly hymn so I had to go and talk to her. She is doing fine now so that's good. The 3rd day one kid who has been here about 3 weeks broke down  crying saying that he needed to talk to the Branch President. So I had to walk with him to reception, call like 3 different people and they told us that he could talk to the kid in 30 minutes.  I guess he couldn't make it, we found that out after waiting for 2 hours then we called again and  the counselor could talk to him at like 8 that night. The kid is doing good now. That was a lot of drama for a first week Zone Leader !! I think everyone is doing well! I gave a talk about the restoration in complete Spanish on Sunday. I had the Branch President tell me that I spoke with a perfect accent and that I have made to of progress. I actually had some people come up to me asking me how long I have spoken Spanish. I had to explain to them that I had only learned in the MTC and that all I know is religious vocab. Its been good here, our Latino room mates left yesterday.  They were super cool and taught me and Elder Coomer some slang and some things not to do. One was actually from Peru so he told us some of the customs there and apparently some common hand signs that we use everyday are really bad in Peru and Mexico, even the way you knock can be a curse word.  That was good to know because that's how we were knocking on people's doors for our fake investigators. Ha ha.  We will be receiving our flight plans probably on Friday but I know that we are either leaving on Tuesday or Wednesday. 

I was actually thinking about something to tell the priests. Here is my advice. Although seminary, scripture mastery, knowledge about the gospel, and church attendance are important, the most important thing that you can do, the most important thing that you can have is an unshakable testimony of Jesus Christ. I never really loved seminary or stayed awake.  Ha ha!  I never really had a lot of scriptures memorized but what I developed through all of my experiences out of everything that I have been through I came to the MTC with an unshakable testimony. You can brag about your seminary attendance but guess what the spirit don't have a GPA. You can have all the scriptures in the world memorized to teach your investigator but they are just words that you have said. I heard a kid tell us during role play his mom said this his mom knows that, I asked him but do you know?   He was stunned silent. When you have your own unshakable testimony in Jesus Christ they are not your moms or anyone else's testimony it is yours, there becomes a Spirit that just carries you. There becomes power in those scriptures that you know. So tell the young men to do whatever it takes to gain THEIR OWN UNSHAKABLE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST. I love you all so much and i cant wait to hear from you again.

Our conversation with Canyon today!

Are you flossing and brushing?I am flossing and brushing religiously whatever gets the taste the food away.

Are you still getting along with your companion?

Ya i am getting along better with him we are just totally different but i guess that way we feed off each others strengths

Have you made any good friends?

I have become really good friends with most of the guys in my district. 

Have you had a good week?

I just got a crappy haircut like and hour ago. Its super short the lady literally buzzed my sides and my back and left the top way thicker but oh well it will grow back.

Do you have to pay for your own haircuts at the MTC?

No, we don't have to pay for our haircuts. The hairdressers actually give every man the same haircut like the exact same. Funny story, this Hermana walked in to get her hair cut today, Hermana Ruthterford, she was the hot one that i was talking about. Anyway I started talking to her a bit, she is actually going to the Riverside California mission so Kendell better not marry her before I do H aha. Okay, so the hairdresser came over and I told her that she wants it supper short like Abby dent short and the lady was like okay.  She started talking to the Sister and I had to tell the hairdresser that i was kidding. H aha.

Are you getting excited to be in PERU?

I am super pumped for Peru. I just cant wait to get out and serve people. It's so exiting!   I know its gonna be hard but I can't wait.

Is there anything you want me to try to send something for Christmas in Peru?

Nothing right now. I actually heard that there is a mail strike going on in Peru right now.

(I looked online and Canyon is right there is a mail strike.  Sorry Grandma Atwood.  They said they would send the mail back to sender)

Hey, I have had an awesome week. I actually just went to the temple today. Well technically the visitors center because the temple is under construction, but it will be opening again about July next year, that is what I heard.  It was still amazing to see another temple, just another reminder to me that families can be forever. Well I got news for you guys, I just became Zone Leader on Sunday so that will be a cool experience.  It has been fun so far and because its the MTC its a fairly simple job. The drive to the temple was about 40 minutes or so and we saw so much poverty that it nearly brought me to tears. I wanted to get out and give people all of the money that I had in my wallet, which isn't much. Hearing Elder Anderson speaking was awesome.  He talked about missionaries and the atonement.  It was amazing, but i think everyone felt so guilty afterwards about every little sin. Haha! It was awesome though I actually got to shake his hands. I wanted to exchange ties with him , but President Pratt threatened to shoot any elder that attempted to do that so I decided against that idea. I never really found out how many missionaries here at the MTC but there are a lot but not as much as the Provo MTC.  Lately its been raining a lot mostly in the afternoon at around 7 pm. My most spiritual experience this week was actually giving the spiritual thought last night on Monday for our zones family home evening activity after which we all play signs. Never thought that I would like signs, but as Zone Leader I have to play. Anyway, life here at the CCM or MTC is good.  The food sucks so I really love those packages mom but life is awesome. My teacher comments everyday on how much my Spanish has improved. I can talk fairly decent, but I cant really comprehend all of the words yet. I actually got two new roommates and get this one of them is from Peru.   The Peruvian talk so freaking fast most of the other Latinos here have to ask him to slow down. He told us that everyone in Peru speaks that fast but that the members will try to talk slower for missionaries that are trying to learn a language, which i think is courtesy.  It was so humbling when the Mexico missionaries, the ones that were dirt poor told us that Peru is poor.  I almost cried. I actually met a missionary today at the visitors center form the US. He did not have a good attitude about his mission.  He said that he couldn't wait to go home. But he did say that it only takes about 3 months outside of the MTC to learn Spanish so that was comforting. I just want to let you guys know that I love you all more than I can explain, but I have no intentions of going home until my work is done.

Love your son, your brother, and your friend
Elder Atwood

I love you Mom. I love you Dad.

This our conversation with Canyon via email today. It was soooo fun!!

I am so lucky that I have parents like you that raised me the way you did. You know lately whenever I feel a little down I have been reading my patriarchal blessing. One part really stands out to me about my mission. You were called to this work to prepare the people of this earth for the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for he will surely come. I read that and I prayed about it and I just thought what if I go home? what if I don't serve my mission? what if I decide that this is too hard? Will the people of the Earth be prepared for the Second Comming of the Lord Jesus Christ? I don't know but I do know that it is my responsibility to prepare them 

That is my testimony and I cant wait to share it with everyone, not just in Peru but in the world that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God! 

I love you guys more than I could ever hope to explain but I know that I am here for a purpose and that my purpose is to prepare the Earth for Christ!

Love your son Elder Atwood

(We sent our video to Canyon that we made for Papa Atwood's 70th birthday)

Hahahahah

Man that video was awesome.  That just made my day! Haha thanks.

That was awesome, could tell dad wrote that!

Do you have your departure date figured out?  Do you know exactly when you leave for Peru?  do you know what area of Peru yet?

We leave for Peru in about two weeks on a Wednesday. I think but we don't get our flight info until last minute. Most don't get it until the day before they leave.

Zone Leader?  Wow?  What are your responsibilities?

I am basically in charge of family home evening, church, hymns, and prayer that our zone does every night which isn't a lot.  I also have to do a weekly check up on all of the District Leaders and call our Mission President about once a week. Our branch presidents name is Muchado.  Sorry I meant so say Branch President.  We call him every Wednesday after lunch.

Anything that made you laugh this week?

 Nothing in particular that I can think of at the moment just the basic goofing around that I always do but only on P days. Haha!

It surprised me when you said that most of the missionaries were sleeping in except for you and your companion.  I don't remember anyone in my MTC group sleeping in or really slacking off.  I talked to a few other people around my age and they didn't seem to remember that being much of an issue then either.  Just make sure you don't let them drag you down.  What percentage of them would you say sleep in?
 Just a couple of the guys in our district but they have actually been good the past week probably because I was made zone leader! Haha!  The Hermanas still sleep in on occasion which is kind of annoying.  Thanks for the advise dad.

Thanks for all the packages you guys have sent me its like Christmas whenever I get one.

One missionary in my district is being spoiled by his mom and literally has gotten a package every two days, don't do that to me!  Haha!

What is your Sunday's like?  

On Sunday we have study until about 10:30, but now that I am ZL I have meetings from 8 until 10.  We have priesthood at about 10:30 then we study for about 30 minutes and at 12 we go to sacrament, and then have lunch at 1.  We study until about 3, we have a devotional that ends at about 4:30, then we study until about 6:00, which we have dinner.  We watch some church movies from 7:30 to about 8:30 or 9.  At 9:15 we all have a closing hymn and prayer as a zone.

Conversation with Canyon via email

We were able to chat with Canyon back and forth later in the day.  Thanks everyone for emails and prayers. 

Are most of the missionaries there American or South American?

Most of the missionaries are from the states but we do get a fair amount of latinos.

What about the teachers?

All of the teachers are latino and I want to say that most of them are from Mexico.  By the way they don't speak English after day 1.

Are you getting enough sleep?

For the first couple of weeks I was only getting about 5 hours of sleep a night mostly die to hearing fireworks at night.  Apparantley they just use fireworks whenever in Mexico.

What kind of food are they serving you?

You do have to be careful about what you eat because almost everyone has gotten diarreah.  I haven't yet but I'm waiting for my turn.  Food here is sketchy.  Rule of thumb if it looks like it already has been digested, DON'T EAT IT!!!

What changed your heart about your companion?

Well at first I was like crap because he was strictly obedient but now after seeing the results of exact obedience I Love Him, and plus we got to know each other more.  We actually might be the new zone leaders after this week because all the other companships are fighting and being lazy.  They are sleeping in until like 8 when we have be up at like 6:30.  I'm so glad God gave me the companion that I needed and not the one that I wanted.  I still think about that phrase all the time as well, pray like everything depends on God then work like everything depends on you.

Are any of the large group talks in English or is everything in Spanish after the first day?

All the devotionals that we have are all in English but church and all classes are completely in Spanish.

Do you run into many Canadians?

That blonde guy at the airport was Canadian from Edmonton.  He speaks fluent Spanish already.

Is most of your district going to Peru, or are you guys going all over South America?

Almost all my district is going to Lima, North except one sister who is going to Chile and another sister who is going to Salt Lake City.  Are those the hot ones?  No we don't have any hot sisters in our district or even our zone but there are some hot ones that we just talk to.  (Hermana Rutherford)  Everyone wants to try and get her email but that's not why I'm here.  I will think about girls when I get home.

Are you still playing ball for exercise?  How often do you play?

I play ball for exercise just about everyday except last week I played cage soccer and volleyball to get to know why my zone a little better.  We get gym everyday after breakfast.  There is a shower area but we mostly just shower back in the dorms so we can get out of our sweaty clothes.

What's cage soccer?

Cage soccer is just soccer with like a cage around it.  It's pretty much playing soccer in a tennis court with 2 goals.  It's pretty fun.

Do you ever go off the MTC campus?

We never go off the MTC campus until we get to use the temple which is shut down.  We only will get to use the visitors center but still it will be awesome.

Have you been writing in your journal?

Ya I've been writing in it every single night.

Hey I love you guys so much.  Anyway, I better let you go. Elder Coomer will be my only companion in the MTC.  Oakley, I love you so much so keep being a good boy and do me favor and don't grow up until I get home.  Ridge, I love you man, you are a freaking genius and I love you.  Ireland stay away from boys right now they are gross.  River keep working out to look like me.  Mom I love you so much.  Dad I love you and I'm glad I have a father who set an example for me.  I love yo all so much.  
Love your son, your brother, 
Elder Atwood 

WEEK 3

Hey guys thanks for the email, letters, pictures, and the Dew. It really means a lot. So the computers here are totally gay and won't let me send pictures unless I have a cord or a card reader and they don't have that at the store in the MTC so if you could send me a card reader so I could send you guys pictures that would be perfect. Congrats to River and Ireland! Thats super impressive. I can't wait to here from you guys again. I actually got the letters about Wednesday last week, but apparently when you send letters in the package with dew or food or whatever it gets here like the next day or even that day which is dope. Anyway, I have grown to love my companion. He is so dope. We are just about the only ones who follow the rules in our district so I have seen blessings come from that. I have a sick experience that I'm going to share with you guys. Ok, so last time I emailed you guys I was extremely struggling with Spanish. Well later that week me and my companion Elder Coomer went to teach our investigator and suddenly I could speak Spanish . Not perfect Spanish but I was able to give the lesson about the plan of salvation in Spanish. It was so awesome. I have been getting complements all over the place on how much I have improved. Its crazy because me and Elder Weaver, a Elder from my district both came here knowing no spanish. He decided to goof off and talk during study time while me and my companion would go outside away from distractions and study hard. We are up early every morning studying, we labeled everything in our apartment in Spanish so we have to use it in a sentence every time we see it. Now Elder Weaver is at the same level that he was at his first week here while now I am one of the top 4 Spanish speakers in the district. Weird thing though after I gave that first lesson in Spanish I could not say a word in Spanish for the rest of the day. I think God is funny that way. I think that he wanted to show me that without him I am nothing, but with him I can do all things. So this Sunday we have a member from the quorum of the  twelve coming to the MTC here in Mexico. Can you guess which one? That's right Elder Anderson! We are all so psyched, but our mission president did say that the Elder who asks to exchange ties with him will be shot! Haha!  He is a little scary. I could swear that he has killed a couple people. HAHA!! Anyway I would greatly appreciate it if you sent me a card reader that would work with my camera because I really want to send you guys pictures. Letters are awesome because I can read them that day while I have to wait a week for email. LOVE YOU GUYS SOOOO MUCH I PRAY FOR YOU ALL DAY EVERYDAY.

LOVE,

Your son, your brother, your friend, and your missionary Elder Atwood.

WEEK 2!

Hey mom, Hey Dad,

 Words cannot explain how much I miss you guys!  I miss home, but I am so extremely happy to be here. My average day at the MTC is wake up at 6 am to get some extra study time in, breakfast at 8, then we learn from our teacher until lunch, after which we teach our investigator a 20 minute lesson then continue to study until dinner. Then we go to the computers to study for 1 hour then we get together with our Zone and have a hymn and prayer. My companion is Elder Coomer, and is from Seattle, Washington. He is exactly like Kevin Bushman. I have made some decent friends here but not like the ones back home. Everything and I mean everything is in Spanish form day 1 which sucks. I feel like I have kinda gotten stuck at the language. It sucks cuz I'm up early to stud, and study hard throughout the day while everyone else in my district goofs off and sleeps in and they are still learning spanish better than I am. We can't go to the temple at all during my time at the MTC, something about it sinking a little bit every year. Someone said it will actually have to be rededicated. General conference was awesome. I cried my eyes out during Jeffrey R Hollands talk on the Saturday session. I felt really good about that talk. I dont know why but that's the talk that I needed to here that week. OH and DAD HAPPY 41 BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

Dont think that i forgot!!

I love you so much and I would really appreciate it if you pray that I will have the gift of tongues because that is something that I have really been struggling with this week. By the way River you know how we thought all Sister Missionaries were not hot. Well WRONG!! These are some of the hottest girls I have ever seen so just keep that in mind. Actually funny story before conference on Sunday a leader at the MTC gave a talk on specific prayers one of the stories that he shared was how this Sister used specific prayer to find a husband. Anyway, so Iglance over at this Sister Missionary that was sitting beside me who was really hot by the way, and I saw in her notes a sentence that took up the entire page! In all caps it said ( HOW TO FIND A HUSBAND). I was laughing so freaking hard it was the funniest thing in the world. I should have said something like,"  Look No Farther Honey Im Here!" HAHA

Anyway its been a great week I would actually really appreciate some letters or something with a picture of our family and some of my friends with maybe a bag of skittles just cuz you get diarreah here like crazy since all the food has already been digested before you eat it. Anyway I love you guys so much and cant wait to here from you again. I'll make sure to have the sign for papa next week for his birthday.

I love you all soooooo much! Oakley keep doing what mom and dad say. Ireland stay away form boys they are icky. River keep working out eating right and someday if you are lucky you can have a body like Kevins. Mom keep being awesome. Dad HAPPY BIRTHDAY and make sure that you tell mom you love here everyday. Ridge your an awesome kid we are more alike than you think, remember to tell mom everything about your day when you get home and don't bottle up any emotions. I LOVE you guys so much and cant wait to see you in two years and see how much you have changed! GOD BE WITH YOU TILL WE MEET AGAIN! 

LOVE YOUR SON, YOUR BROTHER ELDER ATWOOD